Thursday, September 15, 2016

No. 82 Jim Baikie

-and note that he has the
curious distinction of being the cover artist for both his first and last Prog.
A neat little calling card.

First Meg: 1.01

Final Meg: 1.05

Total appearances: 109

-including run on New Statesmen in Crisis, and
double-dipping for the two series of Skizz
he wrote as well as drew (which ups his total count quite considerably)

Creator Credits:

Skizz

New Statesmen

Other art credits:

Judge Dredd

a couple of one-offs

Notable character creations:

Skizz

Roxy, Loz, Cornelius

-and if I’d read New Statesmen
more than once, I bet I could name some of them here, too.

Notable characteristics:

Small but very
expressive eyes. Exceptional cartooning, with a great line in subdued
exaggeration, to coin an oxymoron. Always conveying a sense of place.

Van Owen, the original piggey-eyed monster. The 'eccent' is South African, by the way - remember when go-to bad guys came from apartheid-era South Africa?Words by Alan Moore

On Jim:

Aside from three
series of Skizz, Baikie has never
really been a 2000AD mainstay, yet he was an extremely welcome presence for the
years he was around. It’s worth noting that he was held in high enough regard
to secure work on the launches of two 2000AD spin-offs, Crisis and the Judge
Dredd Megazine. Everyone* remembers New
Statesmen, usually pretty fondly, but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone mention
Midnite’s Children, the only
official** ‘Judge Dredd’ story that actually ran in the first few issues of the
Megazine.

That there is some hardcore scene setting and character design.Words by Alan Grant

Now, arguably, it’s
not a Dredd epic to set the world on fire, but a) the art is cracking, and b)
it’s the one story from that first Megazine that 12-year old me could relax
into, as it felt like the sort of strip I knew from the Prog, and that’s all
down to the art.

A sitcom character trapped in a phone booth while juve-y mayhem goes on around him.This is my definition of safe, relaxing Judge Dredd comics...Words by Alan Grant

Putting it crassly,
Jim Baikie has always drawn comics properly
– as in, pencilling it out, then inking it, with recognisable characters that
have consistent features and haircuts, just cartoony enough to project my own
ideas of character onto, but realistic enough that it feels like a step above
Tintin and the Beano and that sort of thing. I realize this is a very personal
definition of ‘properly’!

Crucially, it’s got
that edge of humour to it.

Simple, comic cartooningWords by Alan Grant

Even when he’s dealing
with an utterly horrible character, such as the blubber-lipped hitman.

Evil as described by lipsWords by John Wagner

Even scarier in colour!

Or Spuggy, the most
repellent man in Mega City One. (Thought I had a scan handy, but you'll just have to imagine a hobbity fellow, only instead of a cheery smile he's got piggy eyes, a bulbous head, and looks like he's ogling you).

Instead, here he is jenning up excitement for the finale to Dredd epic Oz:

You'll have to buy this Prog for yourself to find out! (Or read Judge Dredd: Oz in one of various collected editions)

By the time he
delivered his Prog swansong, his tendency to cartoon had really come to the
fore. It’s both weird and delightful at the same time.

The art of drawing without drawing. So much still conveyed even without filling in all the details.Dredd's heroic/matter-of-fact pose is the key detail, of course.Words by John Wagner

Let’s dip back in time
a little bit to New Statesmen again.
Just speaking from my own experience, my overwhelming memory is not the actual
issues of Crisis (which I have a small selection of), or even the collected
edition that I borrowed from a friend about 10 years ago, it’s the bumper ad
that ran in 2000AD featuring the opening sequence from Smith and Baikie’s
story.

(Swiped from the website of the lucky bastard who owns this original piece of art!)

That is some badass
cartooning right there. I mean, the giant, distorted ‘shot through the eye’
head panel is kind of gimmicky, but it is also inherently fun, and is a prime
example, to me, of ‘comics drawn properly’. Even the more straightforward drug
sniffing panel at the top drew my attention, partly because of the ‘gosh, I
didn’t know comics could show people taking drugs’ titillation, but mostly
because the storytelling is just so clear. You can see that the girl isn’t
doing it recreationally, she’s doing it because in the moment, she needs
something to give her a confidence boost, to help her find that winning snarl
that obviously powers her through her human interactions. A picture (or
sequence of pictures) tells a thousand words, indeed.

A close-up for you of the sequence in question.Howl of anguish by John Smith

And so to Skizz, without doubt the series for
which Baikie is most known to 2000AD fans. I’ve a feeling book I isn’t quite as
highly regarded as it once was, perhaps because Alan Moore’s later work on Halo Jones is now an unimpeachable
comics classic. But, you know, page for page I wonder if I don’t like Skizz more. Roxy is every bit as
relatable as Halo, but she has the benefit of a more consistent supporting cast,
and of course Interpreter Zhcchz himself.

Slkiz and Roxanne O'Rourke, two of the most well-thought out character designs in 2000AD.Also answered: how to draw an alien/kangaroo hybrid that is on the point of being sick.Words by Alan Moore

The received wisdom on
Skizz has always been that it was a
deliberate E.T. riff, but set in England, with a girl. Fascinating
to learn from Steve MacManus’s book that this is, in fact, not the case. Presumably
Moore and MacManus deliberately contrived the overt E.T. link to stave off
accusation so plagiarism, and in fact it was coincidence all along! It was
certainly written before E.T. was in UK cinemas – the first batch of
episodes at least.

Of course, while Skizz does have a very similar
overarching plot to E.T, it isn’t much like E.T. at all in tone. The analysis
of family life and blue collar realities of 1980s Birmingham owe a fair bit to Baikie’s
artwork, and places it in the realm of soap opera rather than boy’s own
adventure.

Describing Birmingham visually-and at the same time, metaphorically.Words by Alan Moore

A lovely bit of panel layout/design to bring girl's comics into 2000ADWords by Alan Moore

And then there’s Books
II and III, which were all Baikie all the time, with no link to any prune-faced
aliens. Sure, neither of these books pack the emotional weight of book I, which
really is a 2000AD story that can make you cry. But both have a neat line in
problem solving, and under-used genre in 2000AD, I feel (possibly because it’s
very difficult to write).

Book II sees Roxy and Skizz trying to concoct a way to save the Earth from
destruction by angry Tau-Cetians. Book III, in part, focuses on Skizz’s efforts
to escape from a locked room controlled by a logic-based machine. Baikie (the
writer) also continues the hint of socio-political analysis, as we join an
older Roxy who has moved to Australia,
in a sort-of attempt to drop out of mainstream society, fuelled by right-on
sentiments. Good for her! Also, Baikie draws a mean kangaroo:

Lovely colour washesWords by Jim Baikie

Book II has the benefit of more Loz and Cornelius, although by the end of Book
III their tropes have perhaps got a little stale.

Cornelius has grown old with dignity

Book III pushes for out-and-out comedy. I’ll admit to enjoying the super-Brummy
robot that bursts out of the VW Beetle, but I wasn’t a fan of the dastardly
Tau-Cetians, either the ones driving the Beetle or the ones on Tau-Ceti itself,
play-acting at Roman Emperors.

Baikie hails from the Orkney Isles. Perhaps he styled the thick Brummie on display here after chats with midlander Alan Moore?

A cackling baddie from teh old school.

But you know, the art
is consistently glorious throughout, and Baikie pulls off the trick of ageing
Roxy in a convincing way – same girl, looks more grown up, still a relatable
protagonist.

I’ve no idea why
Baikie didn’t do more work for Tharg – perhaps busy elsewhere, or perhaps his
method was rather time-consuming, but I’m glad for what we got. Now come on,
Tharg, get New Statesmen back into
print, along with a complete Skizz!

Yes, Skizz will make you cry as much as E.T. -and this sequence happens in like episode 3!Words by Alan Moore

More on Jim Baikie:

All too little, sadly.

Here’s a lovely piece
about his work on Jinty, aka what he did before 2000AD

Judge Dredd: The Hitman; In the bath; Little Spuggy’s Xmas; Midnite’s Children

Skizz: books I and II

New Statesmen

*Where ‘everyone’
means the people that might stumble onto this blog.

**Go on, let’s have
another argument about whether or not ‘America’ is a Judge Dredd story that should have been reprinted in the Complete Case
Files. I mean, clearly it is, he’s on the first page and everything, but it’s
not that hard to argue that the story is really
about Bennet Beeny, or, if you’re writing an essay on the strip and want a tick
in the margin, about the Justice System, and especially life in Mega City One.

(Of course, if you’re
going to argue along these lines for America’s non-inclusion in the Case
Files, you’re going to end up ditching an awful lot of stories)